One of the hardest parts of accepting our reality of traveling is looking on instagram.

All the travel grams are so picture perfect and staged. I remember looking at those and thinking that I would never be good at traveling because I didn’t have those staging resources, nor was I on the road ALL THE TIME! Instagram is full of some amazing travel myths.

Me looking not picture perfect.

Most people I meet while traveling don’t have fancy cameras, or a change of outfit for every wall and scene they come across. Not that there is anything wrong with that, by any means. It’s just not a plausible reality for most people. In our world of comparing ourselves to everyone we don’t know, it takes an emotional toll when we don’t feel like we add up.

But Remember! Most travelers aren’t like that! Most travelers wear the same outfits on every trip.

I have worn these pants in every trip over the last four years.

I remember a while ago I was looking through all my pictures and if I didn’t know any better, I would have assumed all these trips happened in the same trip! But alas, they happened over the span of 4 years. All in about the same outfits.

I, like most people, can’t afford to go out and travel for months or years at a time.

Working in Alaska, saving up for my trip to Peru.

I also have a dog. It’s not REALISTIC. So, let me tell you something; to be a traveler you don’t need to travel for months at a time, have a change of clothes for every scene, carry professional photography gear, or spend hours editing your pics.

Below, I will lay out some of the most common travel myths that tried really hard to kill my travel self esteem.

Travel Myth 1: It’s only worth it if you’re traveling for a long period of time.

You can go somewhere for a couple days, a couple weeks, or a couple months. You can go when you have time and money set aside for it!

This year I got married and couldn’t afford to do a big trip. A big travel goal of mine is to go to one new country a year and we still wanted to get out of the country for a couple days. We packed our car with camping gear and drove to Banff for a quick two day trip. It was Marvelous!

You see? It doesn’t need to be a big deal because travel is travel.

A quick day trip to the Festival of Colors near my home.

Travel Myth 2: It’s always picture perfect.

Travelers, it’s not always picture perfect. What I mean by ‘it’ is you, your clothes, your hair, your face, the scene, the nature, the city… it’s just not. Sometimes you look worn out and you have zits, your clothes smell, there’s garbage everywhere, it’s raining, or the lighting just isn’t right.

Travel grams lodged that travel myth deep in my self conscious self. Up until recently, I found myself pretending instead of enjoying. It wasn’t fun at all. In fact, that is what inspired this post!

After 5 days of hiking through Peru, I looked less than picture perfect.

Travel Myth 3: You need a top of the line camera for it to be post worthy.

You don’t. You really don’t. It helps because who doesn’t love a high quality photo? But it’s not the most important thing. When I got to Machu Picchu, my little point and shoot camera died and all I had was my iPhone 5s. It took good pictures that warranted many a like. In fact, I think it helped me enjoy the ruins even more because I didn’t have the battery life to take a lot of pictures.

Usually, I only take a point and shoot camera of my own. I am not a photographer and neither is my husband. But we still have loads of fun.

Bad selfie taken with a llama on Machu Picchu

Travel Myth 4: You can’t go somewhere if you don’t speak the language.

This is something I have had to get over myself. When I moved to Argentina to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I didn’t know a lick of Spanish. Eighteen months later, I left Argentina feeling confident in Spanish. Since then I have gone to Peru, Belize, and Spain. Going to Portugal and Morocco FREAKED ME OUT. Why? Because I don’t speak either of those languages and I hate not understanding what’s going on around me.

Luckily, most places are pretty travel friendly and if you speak universal body/sign language, you’ll get a long just fine!

Chinese tourists in Yellowstone. Ended up conversing with them in a shared language of Spanish.

Travel Myth 5: Traveling is expensive!

I would say the biggest travel myth ever is…. drum roll…. it has to be expensive! Granted you do have to fork out some cash, but not many thousands! I promise. It really just comes down to your spending priorities. In my experience, the most expensive part of traveling is transportation. If you don’t mind abandoning the other four travel myths; travel duration, picture perfection, the exact right camera, and…well the language has nothing to do with cost… then you will be fine. Just set a budget and stick to it.

In Peru (airline aside) I wanted to only spend $500 for the three weeks I was there and that’s all I spent.

Went to a Hawaii on a one way ticket, worked four months and went home.

I know traveling can be intimidating but it is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Debunk these travel myths and any other travel myths you have and go enjoy yourself! And if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know!

Shameless airport selfie